Time Well Spent and New Metrics in Tech
For a recent assignment I was tasked to profile a blogger who writes about a similar subject to my own. Luckily, the same day I was sent a link to a TED talk by an old friend who knows of my interesest in making our technology more human. The talk by ex-google “product philosopher” Tristan Harris, focused on the concept of time as metric.
As discussed in earlier posts, It is no doubt that we live in an attention-economy. More time with our eyes glued to our screen means more data on user preferences and more opportunity for advertising. It is this concept that has made the phone — a remarkable empowering and time-saving device — something that often gets in the way of our productivity. Our favorite apps — Facebook, snapchat, twitter, youtube — are engineered for addiction (Read Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products).
While none of these observations are new, the insight from Harris is in his request to find new “relevant metrics” for our products. The apps don’t compete for more of our attention out of ill will or an evil plot to take over the tech ecosystem — they are simply engineering their product, as any product is engineered, to perform best on their current metrics. Its simple, to serve their their users in the best way possible, the tech world needs better metrics. And users have to demand that products are built to these metrics.
In Harris’ vision, this metric is all about “Time-well spent”, and others companies have followed his lead — re-defining their companies value based on time-centered principles. Task-management app Asana “helps teams become 45% more efficient”, nighttime-screen calibration software f.lux “helps people reclaim 15 mins of quality sleep a night”, Ad-block “helps reclaim 30%-40% of your attention across the internet”. iOS app Moment — who’s main tagline is “Put down your phone and get back to your life” — even “helps the average person reduce daily screen time on phones by 30 min a day”. The app meetup — also featured on Time Well Spent — also sets a standard by incorporating non-digital metrics, focusing on the amount of connections made in real life outside the app. This is very similar to what makes AirBnB a silicon valley standout, framing its work more as community building and development than a overnight booking service.
A helpful analogy rests lies in the rise of “organic” label goods. Because of this label, gained through a certification process, food is sorted and organized based on user preference and ethics. Although much of it is overpriced, people are willing to pay because they care about the quality of the food they eat, and the process through which it arrived on their plate. In contrast, we download, load, and ingest software without asking any questions. Harris suggests a “a time well-spent” certification much like organic or GMO-free. This suggestion doesn’t help the silicon valley elite hippie stigma in the slightest, but it is important. The products we use inform our thinking and well-being just like the food we eat affects our health.
The work of the Time Well Spent Initiative sets the wheels in motion for real change in silicon valley product culture, and as tech pervades our lives, it is a important fight. A sense of time seems to be a great metric to value how much our products are actually helping us vs. distracting us. On our mission to be more conscious users, what other metrics are waiting to be utilized? We need to move past the easy metrics, and work to find those that are relevant.
